President Donald Trump pauses between blowing a whistle to start races for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 2, 2018.(Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

Here’s part of what’s said:

“We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories — stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.”

Sound familiar? The exact same lines could have been delivered at a White House press briefing. Only this is media bashing media, on the orders of the owner.

What is Sinclair Broadcast Group?

All the stations participating are owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns or operates more than 170 local TV stations around the country — the largest TV-station owner in the United States.

Sinclair has often adopted a biased agenda in its reporting (something John Oliver took on his typically brilliant fashion on "Last Week Tonight" last year). Sinclair stations air "must-run" packages about conservative-friendly issues, and there's a check-in with the "Terrorism Alert Desk."

Donald Trump weighs in on Twitter

This didn’t escape the notice of President Donald Trump, who Monday tweeted, “So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”

So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.

If you don’t speak Trump, here’s how that translates: “I like Sinclair because it is slavishly devoted to me and my policies and actions. I don’t like CNN and NBC because they aren’t.”

That’s actually kind of funny, too, in a way — Trump is predictably defensive in the face of even reflected criticism. Who didn’t see that coming?

Why this is a serious problem

What isn’t funny is that local TV news broadcasters wield a lot of influence on the communities they ostensibly serve, and this is a betrayal of that power.

Local news anchors are celebrities in the cities and towns in which they work, in part because they’re on TV — that makes a celebrity out of anybody, on some level — and partly because they live among their viewers. He or she is one of us! I can trust him/her.

And maybe you can. But it’s a lot easier when said local anchor isn’t parroting the exact same media-bashing script as hundreds of other Sinclair anchors around the country.

Two quick things:

The media isn't perfect: Criticism vs. an attack

The media — the real media, not the propaganda machine that Fox News has become, and certainly not Sinclair, which has an obviously conservative agenda — are not perfect, and they must weather well-deserved criticism when they make mistakes.

But this is different. This is attacking the media as an institution as being untrustworthy (with the exception, presumably, of Sinclair stations). It’s ugly and it’s scary. Just watch the video to see how scary.

The company asked them to do this

Also: These men and women are employees who have been asked to do something by their owner. Would they be fired if they didn’t comply? What should they have done?

Quit, and lose their source of income?

That’s a difficult question. It’s also one I’ve never been faced with.

Like anyone who writes about this stuff, I’ve been accused of toeing some imaginary company line, but that’s not the case.

My employers have never told me to adopt a position one way or another, ever. It’s an independence I appreciate and protect. Until I saw the Deadspin video, I thought it was something all of us who work in media enjoy.

No longer.

“Unfortunately,” the Sinclair script continues, “some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.’ This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.”

Of course what’s really dangerous to a democracy is a lack of independent journalism, something that is difficult enough to produce without the President and his supporters simply branding stories they don’t like as “fake.”

What’s really fake is this exercise in propaganda journalism that actually attacks real journalism . Don’t be fooled by the masquerade.